ROBERT CRAY
An Army brat who grew up on bases in West Germany and the Pacific
Northwest, Robert Cray was introduced to popular black music at
home, but he discovered blues artists as a teenager.
In February 1986 Cray's fourth album, Strong Persuader,
hit number 13 on the Billboard pop album chart, making it
the highest charting blues album since Bobby 'Blue' Bland's Call
On Me/That's The Way Love Is, which reached number 11 some 23
years earlier.
Strong Persuader in effect introduced a new generation
of mainstream rock and pop fans to the language and form of the
blues.
Signed to the small High Tone label when work began on Strong
Persuader, Cray was hoping to hook up with a larger company.
He eventually cut a deal with Polygram, but continued to work with
producers Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, who had produced his
previous High Tone albums.
As a result, the LP was released with a combined High
Tone/Mercury imprint. In addition to co-producing the album,
Walker contributed Right Next Door (Because Of Me), a
tale of infidelity played out in a motel room.
 The song, which became the album's centrepiece, also includes
the lyrics from which Strong Persuader derived its title.
The song that really drove the album up the charts was Smoking
Gun, a smouldering tale of jealousy and murder.
Although released two months after the album hit the streets -
late for a single - it became a Top 40 hit, and the video became a
staple on MTV.
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